Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 23-minute Q&A, Geshe Pema Tsering addresses questions about motivation and the mind of enlightenment. He opens by clarifying that ignorance is the root of all six afflictive emotions, including afflicted doubt. The central theme is how bodhichitta — the wish to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings — determines whether spiritual practices yield their full benefit: sūtra reading, mantra recitation, and even protective mantras placed above doorways all depend on this motivation to work completely. A student’s observation that Western practitioners struggle to trust sūtra practice prompts Geshe-la to explain the role of the guru and bodhichitta while reciting. He then describes the sustained meditation needed to make bodhichitta arise as spontaneously as anger and attachment currently do — and notes that once this is stable, realization of emptiness follows more readily.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2005 12 13Q Bodhisattvas Way of Life.mp3
UUID: 2cda7568-0aee-4408-a9de-5da577a5a2da
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Bodhisattva Way of Life 2005 Mar -2007 (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2005-12-13
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 23.4 minutes
Words: ~1,200
afflictive emotions, the one of the six. No. From ignorance. They arise from ignorance. Of the six, one of them is ignorance.
And Geshe-la is saying that that afflicted doubt also arises from the from ignorance. He was saying afflicted doubt arises from ignorance as all the other afflictive emotions arise from ignorance. So there are six, and Geshe-la was saying that the main one is is ignorance. And from from from ignorance, doubts, and all the other four arise. That’s what he was saying.
So then, again, I say it depends on on the motivation that one one has. If one has the motivation of benefiting another while while reading the sūtra, then then one will benefit another, another the other person, and also one benefit oneself. If one has the motivation of benefiting only oneself, then one will benefit only oneself from reading the sūtra. So then, again, I was saying that in in the sutras, they say that many sutras, they said that there are many benefits out of reading, unimaginable, uncountable benefits, all sorts of benefits will come out of reading the sūtra. But, again, I just explained that, actually, in order to be able to accomplish all of these benefits in in its in its totality, what must be done.
One must read them in dependence on on on having given rise to the mind of enlightenment. Otherwise, one will not accomplish all these benefits. It is in dependence on the mind of enlightenment that these all these benefits come about. So then, for example, Geshe-la is giving another example that there is some mantras that one puts on above the door, and that said that if somebody passes under this mantras, then won’t won’t be born in the lower realms. So these these things are said.
But, again, Geshe-la said that it is in dependence on the mind of enlightenment that these things come about — without the mind of enlightenment, these things will not happen. So then, so, yes, there there are many benefits out of reading the sutras. But then so it is good that we read the sutras because it is going to leave / plant good imprints in our mind streams. So for for the sake of planting these imprints, we should we should. So then so then I say, so what is the mind that we should we should give rise to while we should be reading the Sūtra?
It’s not the it’s not a mind that thinks of one’s own welfare alone. It’s not a mind that thinks of one other person’s welfare alone, but it’s a mind that thinks of the welfare of all sentient beings. And then yeah. So again, I was saying that, usually, we we only think about our own welfare, our own happiness, our own liberation, our own enlightenment. Or if we if we think of others, we are only thinking of of our mother or father, our our brothers and sisters, our friends, our our close friends, and so forth.
People who who think of of the happiness of all sentient beings, there are very few people, aren’t they? You said you had another question. Just thinking too that in the West we don’t, we don’t have a habit of reading the sutras. We we don’t really trust that it’s going to work for us. And so that leads me on to the second question that once that.
So how we How are we to see the Guru when we’re reciting the Sūtra in order to generate this mind of enlightenment? Like, what is the best way? I don’t think because I don’t think that we we understand how to do that. So he says the best way — can I say — the best way to do it is giving rise to the mind of enlightenment. So having given rise to the mind of enlightenment, then one thinks of the lama and and reads the sūtra.
That’s the best one. So he says it depends it depends on the motivation. Okay. So then the mind of enlightenment is is that mind that thinks that one must bring all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment, and that I myself will do that. And that mind that thinks that the mind that is generated by this thought is is what is called the mind of enlightenment.
It’s a mental factor — when we talk about mental factors, that’s what it is. How am I going to do that? So then Geshe-la explained that this mind of enlightenment, which is which is this thought of achieving enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, which is the thought that one must just like oneself, all sentient beings wish to be free from suffering and wish to have happiness, then realizing that all sentient beings are like oneself, one must free all sentient beings from suffering and accomplishing all happiness for the sake of them.
And then for the sake of accomplishing that one must achieve enlightenment. And then this thought, one has to meditate on it. One has to bring this this thought about again and again until the point where where it will be forcefully one brings this to mind forcefully, again and again, to the point that it comes about effortlessly in an uncontrived manner naturally. Just as Geshe-la explains, just as the afflictive emotions that we have, anger and attachment, they come they come about naturally without any efforts, they come to our minds. So we have to bring about the mind of enlightenment.
We have to make it, meditate it to the point that the mind of enlightenment comes about in as naturally as the afflictive emotions are coming. And then and then when we when this is accomplished, then we are bodhisattvas. Those are bodhisattvas. So it says, yeah, There are bodhisattvas who have not realized emptiness. This this having realized the mind of enlightenment.
And then he says, after they have realized the mind of enlightenment, it doesn’t take long for them to realize emptiness, but but in between, there is a brief space of time. Last question, okay? This is the last one, okay? So So then Geshe-la is saying that in order to realize we must we must, I say, accumulate a lot of merit. It’s the two accumulations.
Right? We must accumulate a lot of merit in order to to realize emptiness. Now the only way we can accumulate the necessary amount of merit to realize emptiness, Geshe-la says, is if we realize the mind of enlightenment, if we have the stable realization of the mind of enlightenment. Then Geshe-la says, if we have realized the mind of enlightenment, then it’s going to be easy to realize emptiness. But until then, it’s it’s difficult.
And realizing the mind of enlightenment is difficult because usually we’re only thinking of ourselves and our own welfare and so forth. That’s what he says. It’s okay? Alright. Yeah.
Great. I’m going for it. Yeah. Okay. Shall we do the prayers now?
In order to realize it.